Gluten Free Bilbao: A Complete Guide for Celiacs

Our Favorite Gluten Free Restaurants + Bakeries in Bilbao

Before we get into the guide itself, I want to include a note at the top here about risk and cross-contact, specifically when it comes to pintxos. 

It goes without saying that each person approaches the question of risk and cross-contact differently, and especially when traveling where standards can be different than they are at home. 

Bilbao is arguably an elite food city with a very unique food culture featuring pintxos (a Basque version of tapas, but slightly different) and a plethora of top tier ingredients coming from the bountiful landscapes nearby, from sheep’s milk cheeses to fresh anchovies and more. 

Pintxos are fun, and the idea of hopping from bar to bar getting a few bites and a glass of wine in a standing room only bar is very unique and romantic. 

However, the reality is that these places are extremely busy and noisy, with a steady stream of people basically all day, and they also use a lot of bread (pintxos are often served atop a slice of baguette). 

While the idea is fun, I do think the practical implication is that the risk of cross-contact in a pintxo bar is a bit higher than in a sit down restaurant where you have the time to explain the situation to a waiter, ask questions, and confirm that everything is gluten free when it arrives. 

If you’re looking to experience pintxos in a lower risk environment, take a look at this Basque cooking class.

We did a slightly different class with the same company while we were in Bilbao and they were able to easily adapt it to be gluten free. 

The instructor, Mikel, worked in Michelin-star kitchens prior to this gig, and he’s a delightful hang (along with being an excellent chef and teacher). 

Luckily, there are several good non-pintxo options in Bilbao, including pizza, bakeries, and healthy bowls. Let’s get into it!

Gluten Free Restaurants in Bilbao

Over the years, we’ve realized that it’s important to us to prioritize supporting the businesses that support the Celiac community.

And that means doing our best to make it to every single dedicated gluten free restaurant and bakery in a city to include it in our guides. 

Generally speaking, I’m not someone who is going to wait until I show up to a restaurant to spring my questions on them and expect them to be able to serve me UNLESS it’s a place that gets great reviews from other people in the gluten free community. 

I use a combination of Google Maps, Instagram, and Find Me Gluten Free to find restaurants that have been recommended by other Celiacs, and I go from there. 

A couple of rules for me: I don’t do pizza places or bakeries that are mixed (with a few exceptions), because I have recently gotten into baking bread and making pizza at home and flour ends up EVERYWHERE. It must be impossible to keep them separate in a normal kitchen unless you have a completely separate prep area and oven, which most places just don’t have.

It’s worth repeating – your experience may be different than mine. 

So much of being able to get safe gluten free food when traveling hinges on your ability to communicate your needs to servers and other waitstaff – whether it’s asking if the plantains are fried in the same fryer as tequeños, or asking if the gluten free bread is toasted in the same toaster as regular bread.

This is especially true in places that are not dedicated gluten free, where the risk of cross-contact is higher.

Eating out with Celiac Disease comes with an inherent risk. You need to clearly communicate your needs to staff everywhere, but it’s especially important here. 

Make sure to:

• Always let the server know that you have Celiac Disease and need to eat gluten free.
• Ask them (very nicely) to help you figure out what is safe for you.
• Confirm with the server when the food arrives that your meal is in fact gluten free. 

If you’re worried about being able to communicate your needs in Spanish (most people in the service industry speak English, but not all), then we’d invest in a gluten free restaurant card that you can hand your server with your needs laid out in Spanish.  

While there are certainly more options in Bilbao (depending on your risk tolerance), this is a collection of places that we feel offer the best shot at getting safe gluten free food in Bilbao.

At the end of the guide, we’ll include a handy map of these spots so that you can visualize how it all fits together and make plans for your specific trip. 

There is one place that we skipped – Naked and Sated – because I’ve eaten at one of their locations in Madrid before, and I wasn’t particularly impressed or interested in revisiting it.

It is 100% gluten free, but it’s pretty expensive and the food isn’t my favorite. 

BONUS: I’ve personally eaten at every single restaurant in the main section of this guide! 

Grosso Napoletana Senza Glutine (Pizza – 100% GF)

I have been enamored with Grosso’s gluten free pizza since my first visit to one of their locations in Madrid, and after a few destinations (Porto and San Sebastián) with fairly underwhelming gluten free food options, I demanded Grosso on our first night in Bilbao because I had been looking forward to it for roughly a week. 

Grosso is a chain of pizza restaurants across Spain, but the cool thing is that they have a handful of locations (usually one in each city) that are entirely gluten free, rather than having every location be a mixed facility. 

Their gluten free locations (they have them in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, and a handful of other Spanish cities) are certified by the Federación de Asociaciones de Celíacos de España (FACE). 

Personally, I love this approach because it reduces the risk of cross-contact at that single gluten free location, and it’s something I’ve only really ever seen in Spain.

There have been a few places in the US that have started doing this, and I’m here for it. 

They basically only do one thing: Neapolitan-style pizza. And I really like their pizza crust, which I was convinced was gluten free wheat starch until I asked them on that first visit (it’s not, at least at the time of writing), and I’ve been in love ever since. 

The diavola and the Hellboy (basically the diavola with hot honey) are my go-to orders here. 

BAUSK (Healthy Bowls – 100% GF)

This was our first meal in Bilbao, and when we arrived in town we were coming off of four days in San Sebastián eating nothing but pintxos (for the most part), and we were craving something a little more wholesome. 

Enter BAUSK, a cozy little fast casual restaurant in the center of Bilbao.

The food here scratched that “healthy food” itch, and it was exactly what we were hoping for. Everything is gluten free and made in-house. 

The main portion of their menu is a series of bowls – half warm, half cold – that feature globally inspired flavors like korma, tikka masala, Thai green curry, and piri piri. You can get each bowl with either chicken, tofu, or salmon (for an extra cost). 

They also have roasted potatoes that you can get with a variety of toppings (salsa, guacamole, etc etc). 

We really liked this place, and it would be a great option for an on-the-go lunch to take with you on a tour or something like that.

We liked it so much – and appreciated that it offers a different take on food than any of the other places we went in Basque country – that we went twice. 

Casa Leotta (Italian)

Of the two Italian places with good gluten free options here in Bilbao, Casa Leotta was both the more expensive one and also the one that we were least impressed with (but that may be more a comment on how good Grosso’s pizza is). 

It’s not 100% gluten free, but they do have a separate area in the kitchen where they can prepare nearly the entire menu gluten free, including pastas and pinsas, which are sort of a flatbread pizza. 

The servers asked everyone when they ordered whether they needed to eat gluten free, so they clearly have some processes in place to serve gluten free eaters. 

It’s pretty easy to tell whether your food is gluten free when compared to the full gluten items, but it’s still good to double check when your food arrives. 

We shared a salad, a pasta (alla puttanesca, which is tomatoes and anchovies), and a pinsa, and it was all somewhere between fine and pretty good.

If I had limited time, I’d try to go to Grosso, but I’d happily eat here again if that wasn’t an option. 

They have a couple of locations in Bilbao, and another out in Getxo (towards the ocean) if you happen to be heading out there. 

AHOAN (Pintxos)

Let’s talk about pintxos here. Pintxos are bite-sized servings of food meant to be enjoyed alongside a drink while standing at the bar. 

They’re named after the toothpick used to hold them together, and traditionally the way they counted how much you owed was how many toothpicks you had in your bowl.  

For the most part, a pintxo is a toothpick with meat, veggies, or cheese (or some combination of the three) served on top of a piece of bread.

Which, obviously, presents a problem for Celiacs (or gluten sensitive folks) because the entire bar is just full of slices of bread. 

For the most part, pintxos can be difficult if you’re a Celiac who cares about cross-contact (like me) because, if you’re ordering from the selection at the bar, there’s almost certainly some level of cross-contact given all the bread flying around. 

The ideal scenario is one we found several times in both Bilbao and San Sebastián where they take your order at the bar, and make the gluten free pintxos to order in the kitchen in the back to minimize the risk of that cross-contact. 

That’s what they do at Ahoan, a pintxos bar right on Plaza Nueva.

They have a separate gluten free menu, and one of the items on that menu is a set of five pintxos that takes a bit longer to prepare, but comes out of a separate area from the gluten-filled pintxos on the bar. 

We got the pintxos sampler along with a plate of the famous Idiazabal cheese – a sheep’s milk cheese made in Basque Country that we absolutely love – and the food was strictly fine, which is kind of what I was expecting. 

It definitely didn’t blow my socks off after trying various other pintxo spots, but it was made more safely than the average pintxo spot, which is why it’s in this guide. 

We did try another place with a gluten free pintxos menu, and it was the most thoroughly unimpressed I’ve been with food in a while. Which is why it’s not in this guide. 

Worth mentioning again (because the pintxos in Bilbao weren’t our favorite) that if you’re looking to experience pintxos in a lower risk environment, take a look at this Basque cooking class.

We did a slightly different class with the same company while we were in Bilbao and they were able to easily adapt it to be gluten free. 

Or just go to San Sebastián, whose gluten free pintxo scene was significantly better than Bilbao (but the other gluten free options there are lacking, here’s our guide to eating gluten free in San Sebastián). 

McDonalds & Burger King

We went back and forth several times about whether or not including McDonalds and Burger King was, philosophically, something we wanted to do in this guide.

On the one hand, we absolutely would not recommend eating at either during your short time in Bilbao.

Save your precious, limited meals for other great food!

On the other hand, I, Matt, also recognize that as a Celiac, this may be one of your only opportunities to experience what it’s like to eat a burger from one of these American fast food chains.

Both offer gluten free burgers in Spain that are accredited by the local Celiac Association.

I went to McDonalds (where they make the gluten free burger with a Schar bun) and watched the employee receive my order, wash their hands, change gloves, and move to a separate part of the kitchen to prepare it.

In Spain, you can order a gluten free burger through the electronic kiosks at both chains.

For McDonalds, it’s a little confusing. You have to go to a normal Big Mac and opt to customize it, then remove the “regular” bun and replace it with a gluten free bun.

At Burger King, they have a separate gluten free section of the menu on the kiosk.

Gluten Free Bakeries in Bilbao (All 100% GF)

There are several good gluten free bakeries in Bilbao, all of them within a short walk of the city center. 

Magora Bakery (100% GF)

Of all the gluten free bakeries in Bilbao, Magora is the place we went multiple times.

Mostly because we went here on our first day, before we knew much about the food scene in Bilbao, and got a croissant, a napolitana, and some Basque cookies. 

Then, we did a walking tour where we learned about a couple of traditional pastries – the bollo de mantequilla and the carolina – and I remembered seeing the bollo at Magora on our first visit. 

So we returned, and we were lucky enough to also find a carolina, a pastry consisting of a tartlet base topped with meringue and drizzled with chocolate and sweet egg yolk (usually there’s also custard somewhere in there). 

The gluten free version at Magora was slightly different (no custard) and MASSIVE, but we had to try it for science, so we carefully carried it half a mile from the shop to our hotel to enjoy it on our little terrace. 

As far as their other, more common pastries go, their napolitana and croissant were layered beautifully, and were the best version we had in Northern Spain.

Their bread is good, too, and you can get a nice boule for a relatively affordable price. 

Another winner is their empanadas, which we got as an easy on the go lunch for a travel day. 

They have a couple of locations around the city – one in Ribera Market in the Casco Viejo (Old Town), and one just across the river from City Hall – and we found that the standalone location (near City Hall) had a much better selection of pastries than the one in the market. 

Kuki Cookie Bakery (100% GF)

This charming little gluten free bakery in central Bilbao makes one thing: COOKIES. (Along with some variations). 

After scrolling through their Instagram, I learned that it was started by an American woman who moved to Bilbao for her partner’s work, and started baking gluten free cookies as a hobby. 

Fast forward a few years and that hobby has turned into a full blown business.

It’s a cool story (I especially enjoyed the fact that the partner eventually quit the job they moved there for to help with the cookies)!

We tried a chocolate dulce de leche cookie, and a cardamom pistachio cookie.

Both were great – the chocolate was decadent and rich, and the cardamom was surprisingly…cardamom-y? 

The cookies are both delicious and dense. They’re HEAVY, so as long as you’re not expecting a light, airy cookie, you’re going to love them.

They also make gluten free bread on Saturdays, but we were in Bilbao during the week so we didn’t get to try it. 

Pastelería Lurayn (100% GF)

Pastelería Lurayn seems to be a relatively new gluten free bakery on the southwestern end of the city center, close to the intermodal transport station (aka the bus station). 

We walked in and were greeted with a plethora of gluten free pastries in the case on the counter, along with even more options lining the walls and a freezer full of ready-to-bake items. 

They have a range of sweet (and a few savory) treats, like napolitanas, palmeras, and even Basque cheesecake, which I was on the hunt for after striking out in San Sebastián (they sprinkle just a little bit of flour into their cheesecake recipes around Basque Country, in most cases). 

They also have six or seven different types of bread, including baguettes and some breads made of alternative grains (like buckwheat and teff). 

We got a few pastries, a Basque cheesecake, and a baguette, and the bread in particular was impressive.

The pastries were good too, with the layers that you’d expect from something like a napolitana (which is kind of like a pain au chocolat, but a slightly different shape and generally filled with custard). 

La Currita (100% GF)

La Currita is a cozy little gluten free cafe tucked away in a subterranean market in central Bilbao, roughly a 10 minute walk from the Guggenheim. 

Of the three bakeries here, it’s the most unique. It’s more of a cafe than a bakery, with a coffee menu, some toasts that are made-to-order, and a case full of baked goods. 

The baked goods are different from the usual napolitanas and croissants, though.

There are a bunch of different kinds of cookies to choose from (many use oats, so be sure to ask about “avena” if that’s something you’re sensitive to) and a pastry case of more dessert-y items. 

We ended up with a cinnamon roll (but different than the typical cinnamon roll you’d find in the U.S.) and a dark chocolate orange brownie, which was clearly the star of the show.

We also got a toast – the hummus and jamon toast – that we liked. 

Gluten Free Bilbao, Mapped

Here are all of the options in the guide above on a handy map so that you can see how they all fit together.

Where to Get Gluten Free Groceries in Bilbao

If you’d like to cook for yourself while you’re in Bilbao, I have some great news: Spain is an excellent place for finding gluten free groceries. 

One of my favorite pastimes (which likely comes from working in the food industry) is going to all the different grocery stores in a new place.

These days, it’s mostly to see how they organize their gluten free items. 

So as we’re walking around exploring a new place, I’m prone to dragging Alysha into multiple different grocery stores to see how many gluten free things they have, and whether they have a dedicated section. 

My first recommendation is to visit El Corte Inglés, a chain of huge department stores that you’ll find all across Spain and Portugal.

They usually have a supermarket tucked away somewhere in the building (usually in the basement), and it is easily the best place to find gluten free groceries in any Spanish city. 

The gluten free selection is MASSIVE. Every Schar product on the face of the earth, a couple of good gluten free pastas (we bring back gluten free Rummo pasta every time we’re in Europe), and plenty more. 

There is one right in the middle of Bilbao (here on Google Maps), and we also like to stop by here to grab snacks for plane or train journeys. 

Another good option around Spain is Carrefour Express, though the way they organize their gluten free selection varies from store to store. 

They are essentially a cross between a grocery store and a convenience store, and they usually have at least a small selection of Schar products (among others) available in a pinch.

There are far more of them scattered around the city, so you’ll never be more than a short walk away from one. 

Last, but not least, is Eroski, another supermarket chain with a few locations around Bilbao’s center.

Pretty good gluten free selection, but nowhere near the breadth of El Corte Inglés or the number of locations of Carrefour Express. 

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